Unitel and Buzton to work under single Beeline brand

Unitel, the Uzbeki mobile arm of Russia’s Vimpelcom which operates under the Beeline banner, and fixed line telephony and ISP firm Buzton, have announced plans to cooperate in the provision of corporate telecoms services under the ‘Beeline Business’ banner. In January 2008 Vimpelcom acquired 100% of Golden Telecom Uzbekistan, owner of a 54% stake in Buzton. The remainder is owned by Uzbektelecom (43.52%) and NCI Projects International (2.48%). Igor Pilyugin, director-general of Unitel, said: ‘Integration of Beeline and Buzton is in [the] closing phase. [By] uniting networks and offering new services under a single brand, we are acting in new capacity. We hope that this will allow us to become the largest universal telecoms operator in Uzbekistan’.